I feel watching or rewatching "Passions" should be like one of those online casino games where you collect money or "coins" for each level you pass.

Gosh why did someone had to remind me/us on Reddit! Rebecca and Julian and their Genie Roleplay and timmy watching the whole thing from the window

This Show. I really want to Watch the entire soap. But I’m Stuck and the more I see the more I feel drained. My braincells are dying man. Id rather watch 30 episodes of Love Island than Passions. That’s Not Good

A generic promo from before the show debuted.

Passions promo (1999)

21 hours ago, DRW50 said:

A generic promo from before the show debuted.

Passions promo (1999)

Thanks for sharing this. I remember seeing this a while back on a YouTube channel that got deleted, along with the individual character promos that were released in the weeks leading up.

3 minutes ago, LostinHarmony said:

Thanks for sharing this. I remember seeing this a while back on a YouTube channel that got deleted, along with the individual character promos that were released in the weeks leading up.

No problem. While looking to see if this was up elsewhere I saw a few promos, some in better quality than others (Sam, Teresa, Miguel).

I also have this one up for early in the show (and a few from a year or two later):

Passions promo (1999)

I’m thinking about starting Passions from the beginning (well, September 1999) because I watched July and August many times already. I may post my thoughts here as I go back and re-watch all these old episodes. I need something to numb my brain for awhile while I’m laid off from work. If anyone wants to join me in rewatching and discussing old episodes I would love to hear everyone’s thoughts!

September 1st 1999 -

I miss the pacing of the earlier episodes. It felt like each member of the cast got a good amount of exposure and there wasn’t any one character that felt overexposed.

I will say though, the amount of Grace/Faith in these earlier scenes were PAINFUL at times. I know that actress screen time gets reduced significantly and eventually leaves the show but I think the writing for Grace was just too corny. I mean, in this episode she is talking to herself about something terrible happening and she repeats the same crap throughout the rest of the show. Poor Dana Sparks must of been SEVERELY overworked in those days playing twin sisters.

Sheridan looks stunning and I must of forgotten what happens in July/August episodes because why on earth is she on a date with Hank? Sheridan Crane is supposed to be this high profile woman. What is she doing with just a regular Joe Schmo? But Beth with her long hair in these scenes are really a marker for me for pre-crazy Beth days because we all know when she shows back up later with the short hair, sh*ts gonna hit the fan.

Young Charity and Miguel are adorable. That is all.

Welcome to the world of rewatching, @Ryanc2!

My fuzzy memory is that Sheridan was going out with Hank for reasons including she was vulnerable and he was kind (I think this was right after Jean-Luc's plot to kill her was foiled), she was subconsciously trying to make Luis jealous and/or denying her own feelings for him, and there might have been a little of the underrated young people in the family being drawn to one another.

@Franko Ah, yes. This was also the beginning of JER’s kink for torturing Sheridan. She finds herself locked in a magicians coffin while on a date with Hank at the lobster shack in this episode also. I’m not disappointed to see Hank in these earlier scenes. I felt he was way too underused. Once the show locked into Luis & Sheridan and Ethan & Theresa, a lot of those “side” characters kind of fell away in the later years. I recall the tall blonde Hank (can’t remember his name) literally having chemistry with just about every young female on that show. It was a missed opportunity to explore his romantic interests!

5 hours ago, Ryanc2 said:

I’m thinking about starting Passions from the beginning (well, September 1999) because I watched July and August many times already. I may post my thoughts here as I go back and re-watch all these old episodes. I need something to numb my brain for awhile while I’m laid off from work. If anyone wants to join me in rewatching and discussing old episodes I would love to hear everyone’s thoughts!

I'll definitely enjoy reading them!

1 hour ago, Ryanc2 said:

@Franko Ah, yes. This was also the beginning of JER’s kink for torturing Sheridan. She finds herself locked in a magicians coffin while on a date with Hank at the lobster shack in this episode also. I’m not disappointed to see Hank in these earlier scenes. I felt he was way too underused. Once the show locked into Luis & Sheridan and Ethan & Theresa, a lot of those “side” characters kind of fell away in the later years. I recall the tall blonde Hank (can’t remember his name) literally having chemistry with just about every young female on that show. It was a missed opportunity to explore his romantic interests!

Ryan McPhartlin (?)

I think he left for a Fran Drescher sitcom.

I think I like the first Hank more as he's not as generic, but I'm not surprised they recast.

@DRW50 Yes, Ryan Mcphartlin! I liked him a lot in the role of Hank. Between him and Justin Hartley I don’t know who was hotter. His looks wasn’t the only reason I liked him though. I thought he suited the role perfectly for what Passions was at that time and I don’t understand why they didn’t hook him up with a main character.

September 7th 1999 -

Just a few thoughts about this episode. I won’t give a full analysis since I will do those once I have a handful of episodes under my belt instead of giving comments for every single episode.

Buuuuuut… I really wanted to stop here for a second before I lose my thought because this episode in particular really stood out to me with the “fantasy” sequences JER was obsessed with doing. It really ruined the show IMO. Here in this episode we have a ton of fantasy sequences of Charity and Miguel being in love.. so we are seeing their love story play out in a fantasy sequence except it’s not actually happening in reality? And Theresa is fantasizing about being with Ethan when Gwen barges in and they have a cake fight. I just feel like this takes away from when the Theresa and Gwen confrontation actually WILL happen. And there are plenty more examples of this over the years on this show that just literally ruin an entire storyline for me. It’s like, if you’re already gonna show us all the characters reactions why should we care to keep watching to see when it ACTUALLY happens? This happened a billion times around 2002/2003ish with Eve having visions of TC finding out about her past with Julien and when the big reveal actually happened it was super underwhelming because the audience felt like it was already spoiled.

Edited 22 hours ago22 hr by Ryanc2

September 7th-14th, 1999 episodes:

Sheridan looks so much older during this time period and MW was only 22! I couldn’t believe it when I looked it up. They have her dressed so mature with a short Karen due which was dated even for that time period. Right now we are taking a peak into Sheridans nightmares about her past. She knows she killed someone but doesn’t know who. I think it later ends up being Katherine’s sister Rachel if I’m not mistaken but even she ends up alive later on. This is where we are starting to see the softening towards Sheridan from Luis because he feels protective and wants to save the damsel in distress. Poor Sheridan is in distress for the entire 9 years of this show 🤣

I feel like the writing for Kay was very much to portray her as a villain during this time and Charity was the heroine. Of course this changes later but the way Kay shows little to no care towards Faith and Charity being in a fire represents how selfish her motives are and I get the feeling she was supposed to have an Sami-esque vibe to her which I am actually enjoying and this young actress Taylor-Anne Mountz is honestly not as bad as I thought remembered her being. She was only 17 at this time too and she is doing great in the role.

Tabitha was able to accomplish her mission of killing Faith. I wonder why they never resurrected her later on in the show. It could have brought about some good drama but they kind of just let that plot die here. Even if they brought Faith back as a recast it could have given Sam and Ivy some drama if Faith decided to stay at the Bennett house even after Grace was long gone. Oh well.

I had the thought last night while watching Theresa and Ethan’s scenes at the “chicken coup” about just how crazy Theresa always was right from the start. She has terrorized Ethan and Gwen since that bucket of paint in July 1999 and it never stopped. The problem is that Theresa is so endearing as a character with her fantasies that the audience tends to justify her actions over Gwen’s who is definitely more cutthroat in her approach even though they’re both equally f*cking crazy. However, I think an argument can be made that Theresa did eventually succeed in DRIVING Gwen insane because in these episodes up until around 2003ish (Sarah’s death) Gwen was perfectly sane other than being thirsty for Ethan.

General observations:

I am loving that these earlier episodes feel so fresh and new for its time and there was clearly a decent budget to have a vast variety of sets, which weren’t only vast but extremely DETAILED. The town of Harmony feels like a real place because of the effort that was put in and the camera work is also fantastic. This was still during the glory days of soaps though so I understand it would be foolish to expect this kind of effort in soaps now but it made me realize that even though Passions was terrible for its time, it certainly beats any of the modern soaps we have now when it just comes to the overall vibe. There was a real commitment to making it a great show, no matter how ridiculous the writing was. I wish we could return to that one day!

This is kinda why I am continuing to watch. It’s not because the writing is great or even good, but I love how carefully crafted the families and characters are, and an effort was really put in to create a vibe for the town of Harmony and the rich vs the poor. Knowing that I could potentially see a completely different set as I move onto a new episode. We saw the gas station Miguel works at, the movie theatre Ethan, Gwen and Theresa were at. Even the kitchen at the chicken coup was shown. These are all just temporary sets but its still is so important when it comes to storytelling and painting a picture to the audience.

Edited 1 hour ago1 hr by Ryanc2